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M-cubed award honors anesthesia doctor by Heather Woolwine Public Relations It’s scary enough to be in a hospital setting for most patients, and even more so when a patient is in serious pain, as well as unfamiliar surroundings. Jay Gottesman, M.D., Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, received the Monthly Magnetic M.D. award from the Nurse Alliance Leadership Council Nov. 20 not only because he works so hard to alleviate physical pain for his patients, but because he is a joy for his colleagues to work with while doing so.     The award, also known as the M-cubed award, was developed to honor outstanding physicians deemed by their peers, colleagues, and patients as “a cut above other physicians” as part of MUSC’s continuous pursuit of excellence, said Pam Smith, R.N., Nurse Alliance chair and Children’s Emergency Department clinical operations coordinator. Each month, nominations are submitted via intranet at http://www.musc.edu/medcenter/formsToolbox/DocAward/. A subgroup of the leadership council considers nominations following a process to remove identifiers and ensure fairness. The nominations are restarted at the beginning of the month, so if a physician does not win during a particular month, then staff may nominate him or her again.   Magnetic M.D. award winner Dr. Jay Gottesman is presented his bag of M&Ms by Pam Smith. Gottesman seemed moved that his colleagues would recognize him in such a way, and received hugs and kisses from well-wishers who came to recognize his warm demeanor during the brief award ceremony in the main hospital’s recovery unit.   In his nomination, Gottesman was described as one of the most caring and compassionate physicians at MUSC, and “a natural born teacher to patients, families, nurses and residents. One of his major goals is the elimination of post-operative pain. If an epidural or block is not working as well as he wants it to, he will either re-do it or add additional medications to the block or epidural. When he is on call, he will aggressively address post-op pain for other anesthesiologists. Jay is humble; he never gets upset at suggestions, requests or questions.”   Recipients of the award receive a certificate recognizing their achievement, as well as a bag of M&Ms. “Typically, in the medical community, these initials are seen in a negative way because they mean morbidity and mortality,” Smith said. “Physicians who present at M&M (morbidity and mortality) are typically in the hot seat during their presentation because of the complex issues involved, so to put a positive spin on these typically negative initials, we present them with the bag of candy.”     Friday, Dec. 1, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.